Shanklish

Shanklish is a Middle Eastern cow or sheep milk cheese that is usually fashioned into golf ball-sized bites and rolled in zaatar herbs, chili flakes or Aleppo pepper. It is best enjoyed with diced tomatoes, onion and olive oil.

A common meze dish, shanklish is generally accompanied by araq. It is also mashed up with eggs or crushed in a pita with cucumbers, mint, and olive oil for breakfast.

With varying texture and flavor, fresh shanklish has a soft texture and mild flavor while those dried and aged for a longer period are harder and extremely pungent in odor and flavor. To make spicier shanklish, spices such as aniseed and chilli can be mixed in before the cheese is formed into balls.

The spicy variants are often covered in chilli, especially in Syria, thus appear red. In the Syrian coastal plain around Tartus and the adjoining northern Lebanese region of Akkar, the cheeses are considered particularly delectable that is why these variants tend to be hard with a clean strong flavor and near-white color.